Last year, I suggested there was no need for President Obama to make
a federal case out of Menachem Zivotofsky’s request to have “Israel”
designated on his passport as his place of birth, pursuant to a law
giving Americans born in Jerusalem the right to that designation if
they requested. My idea — which I thought might resonate with Obama —
was to blame Bush!

Congress enacted the law in 2002; President Bush signed it, but said
he would not enforce it; Obama had campaigned against Bush’s many
signing statements, saying a president generally had only two
choices – sign a bill or veto it; and Obama could have said he was
simply faithfully executing a law his predecessor had signed. If he
wanted, Obama could have done what President Clinton did regarding
Taiwan: comply with the passport law while declaring American foreign
policy remained unchanged. Case closed! But Obama proceeded to the
Supreme Court, which ruled the issue can be adjudicated; and because
the controversy continues, we may continue to be treated to
colloquies like the one at the State Department yesterday.

State’s spokesperson was tortured with a series of questions about
whether Jerusalem is part of Israel. Given the position the
administration is still defending in court, she had to refuse to
acknowledge even West Jerusalem (where Zivotofsky was born) as part
of Israel. She thus repeatedly had to dodge the question, obviously
acting on instructions to say only that Jerusalem is an issue to be
resolved by negotiations. She gave the same answer to the
question, “What is the capital of Israel?”

The reporter might have referenced the State Department website,
which identifies Israel’s capital as Jerusalem (and says Israel’s
area is 20,330 square kilometers, “including Jerusalem”); or the CIA
website, which says the same thing; or the Department of Defense
website, which is replete with references to “Jerusalem, Israel” –
including a picture of Secretary Gates and Prime Minister
Netanyahu “during a working lunch meeting in Jerusalem, Israel.” But
for the same reason the White House scrubbed its website of
references to Vice President Biden in “Jerusalem, Israel” and
scrubbed references even in Bush administration documents, the
official policy had to be restated yesterday no matter how the
question was asked.

This all could have been avoided if the White House had followed my
advice last year; ended the charade about the city that has been
Israel’s capital since 1950; and stopped fighting a nine-year old
boy’s passport designation in the Supreme Court and beyond. Sometimes
I think the White House doesn’t read my posts.